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Author Topic:   Time for a new Save icon?
Super Flippy
Geek

Posts: 78
From: South Carolina
Registered: Jan 2002

posted March 06, 2002 12:11     Click Here to See the Profile for Super Flippy     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
One of our developers has asked me to make him some "cool icons" for his new app. As I began sketching ideas, I realized that I had a problem. The majority of apps I've seen use a floppy disk as the icon for "Save".

Now, even if you actually have a floppy drive on your computer, when's the last time you actually used it, let alone saved a file to it from within an application? I'm thinking that perhaps the floppy icon is getting a little long in the tooth. But what else means "Save" and is recognizeable? A hard drive? A baseball glove? Any wacky and interesting ideas out there?

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Tau Zero
BlabberMouth, the Next Generation.

Posts: 1685
From:
Registered: Jan 2000

posted March 06, 2002 12:59     Click Here to See the Profile for Tau Zero     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A life jacket.

An animated roll of aluminum foil (as in leftovers).

A piggy bank (in a different context).

File cabinets are obvious, but they are possibly even more pass� than floppies.

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Bregalad
Super Geek

Posts: 203
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Registered: Jan 2002

posted March 06, 2002 13:18     Click Here to See the Profile for Bregalad     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Actually Tau, the invention of the computer has increased the use of paper (particularly US Letter and A4), making filing cabinets even more necessary than in the past. Viewed from that perspective, however, the filing cabinet could be used as the print icon. Now wouldn't that screw up users?

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quantumfluff
Highlie

Posts: 672
From: the ether
Registered: Jun 2000

posted March 06, 2002 13:53     Click Here to See the Profile for quantumfluff   Click Here to Email quantumfluff     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Tupperware. A safe. The word "Save" in tiny letters.


For me computers have not increased the amount of filing. I tend to file things that are NOT available for printing, like stuff I rip out of magazines. I do use more paper, but it's only transient. Most things that I print I recycle within a few weeks.

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macadddikt18
SuperBlabberMouth!

Posts: 1126
From: In a world beyond your understanding
Registered: Jan 2002

posted March 06, 2002 16:06     Click Here to See the Profile for macadddikt18   Click Here to Email macadddikt18     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Jesus saves. and so does superman
Nayt

------------------
Through out your life you will wonder who THEY are. Then you find out who THEY really are. From then on you live you life in fear of THEM and you wish you never knew who THEY were.

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ZorroTheFox
SuperBlabberMouth!

Posts: 1117
From: Milton, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2001

posted March 06, 2002 18:05     Click Here to See the Profile for ZorroTheFox   Click Here to Email ZorroTheFox     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
how about a life saver........Z

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trowelblister
Super Geek

Posts: 227
From: doylestown, pa, usa
Registered: Sep 2001

posted March 06, 2002 19:34     Click Here to See the Profile for trowelblister   Click Here to Email trowelblister     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
personally, the tupperware idea amuses me the most, and while the file cabinet is probably apropos, it doesn't seem like much fun. not that I have any good suggestions,,,,,,

screw it, how expensive can it be to liscense the superman logo from DC comix???


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pakratt
Newbie

Posts: 9
From: LA/GA, USA
Registered: Nov 2001

posted March 06, 2002 23:57     Click Here to See the Profile for pakratt   Click Here to Email pakratt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
last time i used a floppy disk, last night when i was putting linux on an old 486. however, other than installation boot floppies (i'm one of those people that uses them quite often for hobby) i can't think of the last time i used one.

however, a save icon... can't think of anything that's not already said. but i think that's how icons will always be, a reference to how things were in the past. for instance, many applications use binoculars for the find function. have i ever used binoculars to find something, doubtful. when i think of find i think grep or locate or in the non-computer world walking around yelling (i.e. find your brother.) most apps have dot-matrix printers for the print icon which is definitely outdated too. and if you stray too far from the norm you'll just confuse people. wish i could help you more but my advice is stick pretty close to common practice. this is where linux needs major work (there is no common anything in linux) and the other systems should not stray from.

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littlefish
Geek

Posts: 71
From: Edinburgh, UK
Registered: Nov 2001

posted March 07, 2002 07:14     Click Here to See the Profile for littlefish     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
How about a goalkeeper (for your favourite sport) diving to stop a ball/puck/whatever from finding the back of the net. You could maybe even offer a choice of sports.

Or jesus with a halo

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Super Flippy
Geek

Posts: 78
From: South Carolina
Registered: Jan 2002

posted March 07, 2002 07:31     Click Here to See the Profile for Super Flippy     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Some great ideas! I particularly like the roll of aluminum foil. Or how about a ziploc bag?

Actually, I went with a life preserver, since it was easy to squish down tiny. Also, I think I recall seeing a similar icon in long-ago apps (was it Norton?) so I thought it might be familiar. I haven't shown it to the developer yet, so we'll see whether or not this goes over well.

I did a search for "save" on my
favorite clip-art site
and got some really interesting results. Some were just bizarre, like the pig on a computer screen with a hose attached to its snout.

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dragonman97
Geek

Posts: 97
From: Westchester County, New York
Registered: May 2001

posted March 07, 2002 14:21     Click Here to See the Profile for dragonman97   Click Here to Email dragonman97     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well, the only problem is that a life preserver is commonly used as a help icon (in KDE under Linux, and for Norton Rescue Disk under Windoze [that's probably the Norton reference you remember]). A safe is not a bad idea, and I must say that I like the Zip-Lock (tm) bag as a save icon idea. But a floppy does mean save to me, as I still use them every now and then (I don't use Macs much, but just worked on a Powerbook G3, and did a file transfer from a PC to it via floppy. Back on the old IBM XT, while I still used the HD as primary file storage, I would back up routinely to floppy. But then, I recall, PC's didn't crash that much, I mainly used the floppy drive to boot straight into games (Lode Runner, and the original MS Flight Simulator).

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dragonman97
Geek

Posts: 97
From: Westchester County, New York
Registered: May 2001

posted March 07, 2002 14:29     Click Here to See the Profile for dragonman97   Click Here to Email dragonman97     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
pakratt,
I'm glad to see another Linux user has joined our ranks. Welcome!

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